New Jersey Jewish News
New Jersey Feature Story

Passaic Democrats dump candidate over terrorism remarks

by Robert Wiener and Elaine Durbach
NJJN Staff Writers

Passaic County Democrats withdrew their endorsement of a Lebanese-American freeholder candidate who had been criticized for remarks some critics said conveyed sympathy with Palestinian suicide bombers.

At a meeting on Saturday, March 25, just seven days after endorsing Sami Merhi, from Totowa, as a candidate for freeholder, the Passaic County Democratic screening committee rescinded that decision. The move, passed by a 20-3 vote, has won approval from some quarters and outrage from others.

The decision came following reports that at an April 2002 rally and at a fund-raiser the same day for Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-Dist. 8), Merhi made comments allegedly conveying sympathy with Palestinian suicide bombers. According to a report in The New York Times, he rejected a comparison between such attacks in Israel and the 9/11 World Trade Center attacks, in which he lost a godson, and he quoted a would-be bomber captured in Israel in a way that some observers interpreted as a justification for such attacks.

According to Julie Roginsky, a spokeswoman for Democratic Party county chair John Currie, Merhi is to be replaced by Joanne Graviano, a Hawthorne school board member who is also active with the New Jersey Education Association. Roginsky quoted Currie as saying Graviano should have had the nomination from the start and that there was no room for divisiveness in the party.

Following Saturday’s vote, Merhi told the Associated Press: “I’m in shock, feeling betrayed. They should be ashamed of themselves.” Merhi, who narrowly lost the party’s endorsement in 2004 because of the same issue, said he asked the party leaders on Saturday to support him and accept his explanation that his comments were misinterpreted. He said he reiterated his opposition to all forms of terrorism and his belief that killing innocent people is always wrong.

Pascrell, a personal friend of Merhi’s, sits on the screening committee with 16 municipal leaders but was absent from the March 25 meeting because of illness. Commenting on the decision at a town meeting in West Orange Monday night, he said, “There isn’t an anti-Semitic bone in Sami Merhi’s body. He wouldn’t have a Jewish Israeli as his business partner if there was. But it’s been four years since these comments were made, and he needed to clear things up, and he didn’t do it. This is not just about politics; it’s also social and cultural.”

Asked whether the pressure to remove Merhi from the slate had come from the Jewish community, Pascrell replied: “Not from the community as such, but from some within it.”

And yet it was fellow Democrats Gov. Jon Corzine and Sen. Robert Menendez who brought the issue forward last week, earning praise from Jewish leaders when the political leaders opposed Merhi’s candidacy.

Max Kleinman, executive vice president of United Jewish Communities of MetroWest New Jersey, who last week expressed his agreement with Democrats and Republicans who opposed Merhi’s candidacy, welcomed the screening committee’s shift. He stressed that the opposition to Merhi had nothing to do with ethnicity, but that his remarks made him an undesirable candidate. He pointed out that in Israel, the late Rabbi Meir Kahane and his Kach party, which advocated “a racist ideology of forced evictions of Palestinians,” were kicked out of the Knesset.

Kleinman added: “Let’s see what future developments unfold. We are always interested in having dialogue with members of the Arab-American community who seek good intergroup relations.”

Speaking with NJJN last week before the meeting, Currie said, “I don’t believe Sami Merhi is a terrorist. He is a good, hard-working American. He is a peace-loving man, but he made a mistake, and I have encouraged him for better than two years to go and fix this — particularly with the Jewish community.”

Currie said Merhi’s statement may be “fine in life, but in politics it’s a problem. I expressed to my screening committee that if he was going to be a candidate, this would be a problem for the Democratic Party. My candidates are not going to be able to talk about other issues if they have to defend him as a running mate. The other side is going to use that to their advantage, and it is my job to put the best possible ticket forward that can win.”

Deputy Assembly speaker Al Steele (D-Dist. 35) said he thought it right that the endorsement be withdrawn. “I know Sami, and I’ve met his wife and his family…. I don’t think he’s a terrorist; I think he made a statement that makes it unhealthy for him to be considered for political office. Wrong has to be corrected before restoration takes place.”

Merhi’s ouster drew furious condemnation from Aref Assaf, president of the Arab American Forum. In statement written after the move was announced, he blamed Corzine, Menendez, the party, and “influential Jewish leaders who threatened to withhold their financial support if the party does not comply.” He said, “Political lynching of Arab Americans is now an accepted practice. Every Arab American is now Sami Merhi.”

Assaf said he hoped the incident would not worsen “the already tense relations between Arab and Jewish Americans, the majority of whom are proud members of the Democratic Party. My fear is that if not sufficiently contained, the harm done and the distrust created as a result will weaken the political chances of the party…. Both groups must find common ground on which to focus their collective energies. In fact, as persecuted ethnic communities, we have a lot [more] that unites us than pushes us apart.”

Lori Price Abrams, director of UJC MetroWest’s Community Relations Committee, stressed that it was not Merhi’s identity as an Arab American that the Jewish community reacted to, but the attitude he expressed. “It was untenable to have a person who sees terrorism against Israelis as more acceptable than terrorism against other people become electable,” she said. “There’s tacit permission given to Israel-bashing in justifying the cause of suicide bombing. It’s dangerous to let that position rest as acceptable, and that’s why we need to be outspoken about it at this point in time.”

CRC chair Stephen Flatow said that while Merhi had condemned terrorism, he hadn’t defined terrorist groups. “That leaves open the question of who is a terrorist. That’s too wishy-washy.”

As for the endorsement withdrawal, Flatow said, “It was the right thing to do. It’s kind of sad that it had to go to the mat like that. The county Democratic Party knew about his remarks and didn’t see them as disqualifying, but they responded to the complaints, and now it’s over — at least as far his candidacy goes.”